Tao Zhang
Tao Zhang is a co-founder of Dao Foods International, Inc., a cross-border impact venture established to invest in eco-friendly plant-based and clean meat in China, which has been selected as one of 15 startups disrupting the global meat industry by The Grocer. Tao is also founder and managing director of Dao Ventures, a cross-border impact investment, advisory and accelerator group with co-headquartered offices in both China and the US that encompassed China Impact Fund (CIF), China’s first impact fund that specializes in supporting environmental SMEs. Prior to this, he was the Global COO of New Ventures, the center of environmental entrepreneurship at the World Resources Institute. In this role, he successfully led New Ventures in Washington, D.C. and its local centers (Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, and Mexico) to double investments into New Ventures companies to nearly $400 million within two years. Before he entered the impact investing space, Tao had accumulated extensive investment and operational experiences in the telecom and high-tech sector, where he served as assistant president for Asia-Pac at Convergys, an S&P 500 company, and was in charge of strategic venture investments in Asia at US leading carrier Verizon. Tao started his career as a European Union economic affairs correspondent with China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency and also advised Chinese government entities on international economic and commercial policies. Tao received a B.A. from Beijing Foreign Studies University, an MBA from Wake Forest University, and an MPA from Harvard University as a Mason Fellow.